A Play for the Other Team.

(Geek alert: If you have no interest in computers, this post will probably be dumb. Unless, of course you have an interest in me, which by all means you should continue reading.)

Because of the nature of my job, I get a lot of respect from parents and staff who value my advice for computer decisions, purchases, etc. Today I had a parent approach me and ask for advice on a new laptop computer. After listening to the things she said she needed, I came to a somewhat uncomfortable conclusion. She needed a MacBook. Now, I'm not a Mac user at all. I don't own one, because I can't afford one. I've also never really used one. Okay, I might have used OS 8 and OS 9 (blech!) briefly in my college career, but that aside, all my my experience lies with the PC from windows 3.1 to the current Windows Vista. I felt uncomfortable, because it was the first time I recommended a computer platform that I didn't have a clue as to how to support. I might as well as recommended her a UNIX workstation. Why did I do that? From what I gather, her primary use of the computer was going to be for writing music (she's a musician). From what I understand of Mac's, that's the logical way to go if you are a musician, video production person, and graphic artist. Anybody out there wanna chime in on this? Did I give her good advice? Or am I crazy? Insane Mac users need not respond. We already know that you are crazy and have a secret Steve Jobs poster hanging somewhere in your house. :-)

Things I've learned so far this week

So far this week I've learned a few new things, such as:

1. Driving and manipulating a cell phone is probably more than likely to send me and my vehicle into a ditch.

2. One's silence can be more aggravating than one's attack.

3. Babies can keep pooping even while you change them (so gross).

4. According to my daughter, my 2-week old son is not talking yet, because he's a boy.

5. Driving and admiring God's beautiful sunrises on the way to work is probably more than likely to send me and my vehicle into a ditch.

6. For every victory there is an equal and opposite defeat, or vice versa depending on your mood.

A Quick Funny.

Little Liam Slideshow

Here's a little slideshow of Liam. He's not yet two weeks, but he seems to be getting so big already.

Jesus I Come

This song is not my own, but oh, how often I should be singing its words...

Out of my bondage, sorrow and night,
Jesus I come; Jesus I come.
Into They freedom gladness, and light,
Jesus I come to Thee.

Out of my sickness, into thy Health,
Out of my wanting and into Thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into Thyself,
Jesus I come to Thee.

Out of my shameful failure and loss,
Jesus I come; Jesus I come,
Into the glorious gain of Thy cross,
Jesus I come to Thee

Out of earth's sorrows into Thy balm,
Out of life's storms and into Thy calm,
Out of distress into jubilant psalm,
Jesus I come to Thee.

Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
Jesus I come; Jesus I come;
Into Thy blessed will to abide
Jesus I come to Thee

Out of myself to dwell in Thy love,
Out of despair into raptures above,
Upward forever on wings like a dove,
Jesus I come to Thee.

Out of the fear and dread of the tomb,
Jesus I come; Jesus I come;
Into the joy and light of Thy home,
Jesus I come to Thee.

Out of the depths of ruin untold,
Into the peace of Thy sheltering fold,
Ever Thy glorious face to behold,
Jesus I come to Thee.

Introducing William "Liam" Albert Jurina

Born: September 2, 2007 8:14am
Weight: 8lbs 10oz
Height: 21 inches


Meg did absolutely awesome. She even forwent the epidoral and went 100 percent naturally. What a woman! She's doing great as will be seen in forthcoming photos. Anyways, I'm sure you'd like to see some more photos of little Liam. Here they are:

http://picasaweb.google.com/abjurina/WilliamLiamAlbertJurina

More photos to come, naturally.

No Baby No Cry.

Let's face it: Nobody in America likes to wait. We live in a hurried and fast-paced culture where millions of people need to "gitt'er done!". So we keep going at a furious pace without stopping. Why? Because there's no time. Or so we believe. Then God says says something like, "Oh, you want a baby, huh? Well, you're gonna have to wait on that one. And just when you think you can plan it, I'm gonna make that baby come when I want it to, not you."
These past few days if not weeks have been pretty tough on my poor, loving little wife. She's got aches and pains, and a baby kicking and punching her internal organs wondering why his room keeps getting smaller. And because I'm the useless male-type person, I have to sit back and watch this all unfold. Sure, I help her where I can. But short of pulling off her round little belly and strapping it on me, there's not much more I can offer her for that kind of discomfort. So we wait. My poor wife waits too. She's said things like, "Its weird, but I'm actually at a point where I'm ready to welcome the pain". I've seen her in labor before. I'm never going to know exactly how bad she feels in labor but from what I gather its probably equivalent to being stabbed repeatedly in the abdomen with a blunt screwdriver. In any case, we wait as patiently as we can. I know that God makes us wait so that when it all pans out, He can say, "See that. It was all worth it!"

When it rains it pours.

Obviously, my previous posting of my ToDo list shows that there's much to be done at work and such. I've been attempting to work extremely hard at getting as much done at the new school as I can before the baby comes. It seems that this task is not immune to setbacks. For instance:

-Discovering that Verizon decided to delay our internet connectivity in the new building to the end of the week, after last week telling us that it would be done by today at the latest.

-Also discovering that the computer which managed our school's grades, classes, etc. had a major melt-down which destroyed even the hard drive and data.

-Repeated crashes of our brand new phone system, which leaves us unable to call out or anyone else to call into the school (which, I might add, is less than ideal for one who expects that his wife can call at any time announcing that she's in labor).

-A giant move-in-day for the school which included a host of furniture and other items...all except my stuff which sits in the upper room of a church 2 miles away. For some reason, my dilligence in getting the network set up and the lab running afforded me not to be able to stand outside with a bullhorn announcing, "Hey, you forgot about MY stuff!".

-Really crappy Verizon wireless service that drops off of the face of the Earth each time I walk within 200 feet of the new building. Yet another way my wife CAN'T contact me in an emergency.

So what's to do? Panic? Strip naked and run down the middle of the street shooting a pistol in the air while screaming at the top of my lungs again? (Okay, maybe you weren't supposed to know about that incident?) No. I'm gonna do what David did, what Abraham did, what Moses did. I'm gonna trust God and dive in. Besides, I can't find my pistol.

I've seen some neat stuff in my life...

...but this artist is just amazing. Scroll down to see it all, and also how he does some of it.

Things to do before September 4th

1. Move server to new building
2. Set up server to manage/authenticate all users on network.
3. Learn how to properly do the second thing on my list.
4. Learn new phone system at new building.
   
5. Set up 2 wireless access points for BIC Church.
   
6. Install and re-image 25 desktop computers.
7. Add new student and teacher accounts to active directory group.
8. Create new group policies for staff.
9. Review/edit student group policy.
10. Add all teacher computers to the domain.
11. Set up new staff members with computers.
12. Install wireless access points in new building.
13. Set up teacher computer and networked printer at Sandhill Road Campus.
14. Find storage and move extra computers to storage.
15. Install computer clusters in several teacher classrooms.
16. Review and plan curriculum and lessons for Spanish 3
17. Review and plan curriculum and lessons for Spanish 4
18. Review and plan curriculum and lessons for Spanish 8th Grade
19. Review curriculum and plan lessons for Digital Photography Course
    
20. Review curriculum and plan lessons for Intro to HTML Course.
21. Review curriculum and plan lessons for Modern Tech Essentials Course
22. Review all School Technology Program Curriculum (Grades 7 and 9).
23. Assist Meg on the delivery of our second child.
24. See Simpsons Movie with Brock.
    

The Poll Results Are In!

And I've got all the evidence in the world now that nobody really reads my blog. I've figured that the 4 measly votes in 30 days is a pretty good indicator of that. Oh well. "At least I have job!"

Overwhelmed by females.

Yesterday we had a birthday party for our daughter, and it was then that I realized that my little girl is becoming more of a 'girl' each day. The picture above displays the remnants of Audrey's birthday cake. What is missing? The icing, of course. She only eats the icing. This, to me seems to be the obvious signs of feminine taste. As a young boy, I'd always eat the icing too, but I'd never let the cake sit there. Gotta eat the cake. Its a preference of quantity that has always dominated my taste buds to some degree. But my daughter (and my wife as well) would prefer quality, sweet pastries, and sugar in varying degrees. Oh, I sure win with my daughter's preference to fruit over ice cream. That's something I've handed on. But eating only icing off of the cake is not from me. I told Meg that next year I'm going to save money and buy her (Audrey) a tube of cake icing instead of a cake. I don't think she'd notice.

The Things that People Do

I may not be much of an expert when it comes to naming children. Although, with the exception of my father, everyone has like our daughter's name. Anyways, it seems that we now live in a world where no absolutes, self-expression, and moronic stupidity are prevalent. At least for people who decide to name their children things like "@". I'm not kidding. Check out the article here:

Naming kids weird things, like @

And while we're at it. How about these people who make couches out of things such as mousepads, old computers, fed-ex boxes and whatever else they dream up after dropping acid:

crazy mouse pad couch

The adventure of Mr. Sh@rts Head and his sidekick Miss P@nty Head

As we left our heroes, they were last seen stranded on the love seat pondering ways to save the universe. Unfortunately, Mr. Sh@rts Head and Miss P@nty Head had, once again, misplaced their sh@rts and p@nties, resulting in yet another spoiled adventure. Tune in next time when Miss P@nty head says, "Hey Daddy, what's that on your head?"

(Note: Actual spellings have been modified to protect the innocent.)

Harry Potter and Metaamphetamines

I have enjoyed reading the Harry Potter series. I borrowed book 7 from my friend this time, since I didn't think it would be smart to invest 20 bucks in another of one of the maybe 3 books that I own. Anyways, the thing about reading Harry Potter is that it has an addicting element to it. Once you pick it up, you just can't get enough. Its very hard to put down. So hard that in the past 3 days, I've been not been able to get into bed any earlier than 1:30AM. In fact, the past two days, I've been up to 3AM. This stinks when you consider that I am awoken on average by 7:30am by my darling 3 year old daughter. Let's face it, 4 and 1/2 hours of sleep a night is not healthy. So I'm guessing that my addiction to Harry Potter might be what it would be like if I was addicted to Meth. I'd get no sleep, feel a longing loss and mental pain from not being able to read/have it, while all at the same time feeling guilty about it all. I'm nowhere saying that I understand what it is like to be a Meth addict. Those people need love and compassion. However, I'm quite thankful that J.K. Rowling doesn't put out several Harry Potter books a year or I'd be destined for rehabilitation and intervention.

Camping Photos

This is old news to some people, but we actually did go camping a week ago and took some pictures. Here are some choice shots to share:

http://picasaweb.google.com/abjurina/Camping_8507

Overall, it was nice to rough it for a day, but next time we do it, we'll make sure: 1. our children have had decent sleep. 2. Meg is not 9 months pregnant 3. I don't have a head-cold 4. Its not upper 80's with 75% humidity. I think that if we work with those above guidelines we should be all set for next time.

New Photoblog Added

Okay, I may be way ahead of myself on this one, but I've decided to start my own personal photoblog. If you like photography or pictures, give it a look if you want.

http://jurina.wordpress.com/

Being who you want to be

One of my most favorite songs on a lyrical level is a song by Switchfoot called "This Is Your Life". I've posted the lyrics to this song on my blog here before: http://thejurinas.blogspot.com/2005/02/good-music-good-lyrics.html

I can't help to continue to look at my job and really feel blessed that God has led me where He has. I have so many friends and acquaintances who really struggle with what they want to do in life. I understand to some degree because I went through that same realization not too long ago. I thought I wanted to be a computer programmer. For two years I trudged through it, convincing myself that this is surely where God wants me. I lied to myself repeatedly with thoughts of contentment at what I did. The reality was that I was miserable. I wasn't "who I want to be". I wasn't making a big difference in the lives of others as I was with teaching. I missed the relationships. Looking back, I realized that I was being prepared through that experience to appreciate so much more my gifts and love for teaching and serving others.

So I guess this is the challenge for you. To borrow from Switchfoot: "This is your life. Are you who you want to be?"

Some Fun Worth Sharing

My cousin decided to share a relatively humorous SNL video that he found on the internet recently. I found it funny enough to share...along with some other skits some of you might enjoy:

(I take no responsibility for the 'other' links or ads that might be available on these sites.)

Taco Town:
http://danwho.net/mp/index.php?id=snl_tacotown

Baby Toupees:
http://danwho.net/mp/index.php?id=snl_babytoupee

Swedish Chef Ringtones:
http://danwho.net/mp/index.php?id=snl_swedishchef

Evangelism Linebacker:
http://www.sermonspice.com/cart/?p=product&id=722

The Blonde Antelope:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3728266100951844857

New Poll Added.

Well, my curiosity has gotten the best of me. My wife has been blogging for a couple of weeks now. She's way better than I am at keeping it up. I guess she's a bit more interesting than I am. In any case, I just put up a poll to check on who is actually reading this blog. Feel free to vote if you want. I guess its more motivation for me to keep it up frequently if I know that people are reading it.

In other news, now that August is here, I'm bracing for my life to turn upside down. A new baby is about due, which will bring our total of young 'uns to 2. For those who don't know, babies are evil. They take away your sleep, spit up on you a lot, cry and scream at you, and then poop and pee themselves and make YOU clean it up. Then when you just can't take it anymore, they crack a little smile or make a little twitch and grab your finger with their tiny little hands and make a coo noise. At that point you're toast. Well, this is coming to our house. I'm also entering into one of the busiest seasons of my professional career with organizing and managing the technology in a brand new school. Its going to be one crazy month of August. If you don't hear anything at all from me soon, check the insane asylum.

Tags are here.

I finally got a clue and started tagging my posts a little bit. I can't imagine that anyone cares, but I figured that it would be good to tag the posts for sorting or browsing later. I'm always one who likes to be organized. Anyways, if you like tagged posts, then I did you a favor today.

Thoughts from Clive Staples, Part 1

I've been reading a lot of books this summer over various topics of interest. The problem never seems to be, "Should I read this book?", rather, "Which book should I read now?". My issue is that I see 3 or 4 different books that I want to read and then get them all. I then strategically place them all over the house in various places where I might have some spare time to pick them up and read a few pages (yes, like the bathrooms). This becomes a problem because I now find myself reading only small portions from one book rather than large portions of a whole book. So I never get anything finished. Anyways, sorry for the rant.

I was reading The Screwtape Letters today when I came to this explanation of Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood concerning what he wants the human to believe humility is. I found this very convicting for myself and just wanted to share:

"You must therefore conceal from the patient the true end of Humility. Let him think of it not as self-forgetfulness but as a certain kind of opinion (namely, a low opinion) of his own talents and character...By this method millions of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. An since what they are trying to believe may, in some cases, be manifest nonsense, they cannot succeed in believing it and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on themselves in an effort to achieve the impossible." pgs 70-71

Ouch.

How to ruin the moment

So I decided to take my 2 year-old to the mall the other day to play in the play area and enjoy an Annie Anne's Soft pretzel (mmm, yummy!). One of the things that she enjoys doing is going to where the coin-operated rides are and pretending that they actually are real vehicles, or horses, or whatever. Now I'm sure that everybody remembers these types of "rides". They usually are parked outside of your favorite department store. Your mom or dad would sit you on it and drop in a quarter (nowadays it's between 50 cents and a dollar..yikes!) and the machine would move up and down or back and forth and play music or make noise for like 3 minutes and then stop. For the most part, a terrible waste of money. Meg and I have resolved not to waste our money on things like this in order to teach our children the value of money, as well as to save it for yummy soft pretzels.

Anyways, so we're at the mall and Audrey is playing merrily on the rides, role-playing between and astronaut or a bus driver (depending on which ride she is on), when some woman with her 0.5 year old comes over and drops in 50 cents into the machine so that her toddler can sit there in a trance, drool, and then eventually cry and try to get out of the thing. What ruins the moment for me is that, all of the sudden that parent has just created a situation for my daughter and I. She inadvertently "unlocked" the knowledge that money could be grossly wasted on these "rides", and that eternal happiness could be achieved at the price of 50 cents. I now need to convince my 2 year old that she doesn't need to slowly go back and forth for 3 minutes to the sounds of Old MacDonald playing over and over again for 50 cents. It took about 5 minutes to explain this to her, but thankfully she dropped the topic and went on to her new position as a train conductor.

What a Camera Can't Do

_{My Canon Powershot S2 IS}

So I was on my summer vacation with my family and a good friend who enjoys photography like me. We decided to go out and shoot shots at the beach during the evening hours just to practice some low-light photography and see if we can find some interesting compositions.

My friend utilizes a Nikon D70, which is a DSLR camera with some pretty nice features. I'd compare it with a Canon EOS Rebel XT or something along those lines. My camera: Canon Powershot S2 IS...NOT a DSLR, so pretty limited. I didn't think this way at the time. When I had purchased my camera, the idea was to get a camera with good quality, virtually no shutter lag, and lots of room to learn photography and advanced settings. We didn't want something that was "too complex" until we felt that we felt that we've learned more about the more advanced facets of photography. The camera was not disappointing. It has a nice 12x zoom which comes to about 435mm (cropped) 35mm equivalent plus many manual settings and such. Prior to the trip, I believed that, other than the possibility of purchasing different lenses, there wasn't much I was missing. With my ongoing learning of digital photography, I was elated to find that so far, I've been able to apply much of what I've been learning on this camera.

However, then we started shooting. I made some manual adjustments to find that my aperture only closes down as far as F8. This could be very limiting for me in circumstances where I'd like a little more DOF (Depth-of-Field) in my shots. It also limits me when playing with slower shutter speeds. Speaking of which, I can only slow down my shutter to 15 second exposures with no bulb-mode option or anything similar. This clearly took the fun out of my night-shooting. Not that a 15 second exposure is extremely limiting, but it certainly hurts when I'm trying to get shots of lightning or make star-trails. No fun.

However, there was a feature on my camera that I wish that DSLRs would have, and that is the adjustable lcd screen. Because of the flexibility of my screen, I could get some really cool shots without having to contort my body into yoga-like positions. In any event, for a point-and-shoot camera that was half the cost of an entry-level DSLR, I think it holds it own. On the other side, I hate the thought of, with my new knowledge and desire to explore in photography, having a camera that prevents me from exploring other creative options. I suppose that mastering the stuff I can now do will allow me to get the most out of this camera until the time when I can move up to DSLR joy.

Summer Vacation

We just returned from a week at Bethany Beach in Delaware. It was a really good time. We went down with our friends Chadd and Cheryl Caldwell, co-workers of mine at Hershey Christian. Chadd and I are avid photographers and event went as crazy as getting up at 5am one morning to get some photos of the sunrise. Towards the end of the week we were joined by the rest of Megan's immediate family for a birthday celebration for her mom. The whole week seems like a blur now, but here are some of the highlights of the hundreds of photos we took on the trip.

http://picasaweb.google.com/abjurina/BethanyBeach2007